Taming a Texas Rascal (Bad Boy Ranch #6) - Katie Lane Page 0,35

to get back at him so I acted like we’d had sex and it wasn’t that great. I planned to tell him later at the rodeo, but then he showed up all bossy and arrogant and asking if I was on birth control. And I sorta continued the hoax and teased him about naming our baby June Bug.”

She thought Dixie would be completely disgusted by her prank. Instead, her friend burst out laughing. She laughed so hard tears ran down her face.

Maisy stared at her. “It’s not funny, Dixie Leigh. He jumped into the arena and suffered a concussion trying to save me because he thought I could be pregnant. I’m part of the reason he has to leave saddle bronc riding.”

Dixie sobered and brushed the tears off her cheeks. “You can’t really believe that, Maisy. The reason Sawyer has to leave bronc riding is because of the other concussions he’s gotten that had nothing to do with you. And if it hadn’t happened and you hadn’t been in the room with him to hear the doctor, Sawyer would already be back on the circuit by now.”

Put that way, it sounded like Maisy had done him a favor. Although she knew Sawyer wouldn’t feel the same. “He’s going to hate me when he finds out the truth.”

Dixie released Maisy’s hand and sat back in her seat. She stared straight ahead and her fingernails tapped on the steering wheel as if she were contemplating something. Finally, she stopped tapping and turned to Maisy. “Then we just have to make sure he never finds out the truth.”

“What? I have to tell him, Dixie. Especially after he made that sweet speech about not leaving me.” As a woman who had major abandonment issues, Maisy found her heart melted by his words.

“That was a sweet speech,” Dixie said. “And it made me realize that God has sent us the perfect solution to our problem of how to keep Sawyer from going back to the rodeo. I, for one, do not think we should ignore a miracle.”

As the truth of what Dixie was implying dawn on Maisy, she shook her head. “Oh, no. Absolutely not. I am not going to fake a pregnancy.”

“Of course you’re not going to fake being pregnant. You’re just not going to tell him that you didn’t have sex with him.”

“I don’t think I can do that. The guilt is eating me up.”

Dixie lifted her eyebrows. “Not even to save a man’s life? Did you know that CTE can kill you? Well, I know because Lincoln has been researching it on the Internet ever since you told him about what the doctor said. He’s worried sick about his best friend. And with good reason. We can’t let Sawyer go back to the rodeo. We have to make him see how dangerous that would be to his life. We need to have an intervention.”

“An intervention?”

Dixie nodded. “We did it for my uncle who drank like a fish. When anyone tried to talk to him about his drinking, he would laugh it off and say he only drank at parties. But the man partied every day. It took the entire family and two AA counselors to make him realize what he was doing to himself. Sawyer needs the same circle of love to make him see the truth. I know if the Double Diamond boys get together, they can talk Sawyer out of going back to bronc riding.”

Maisy figured if anyone could talk Sawyer out of returning to saddle bronc riding it would his friends. “We need to do it as soon as possible so Sawyer isn’t stressed out about being a father.”

“I totally agree. I’m going to try and pull it together as quickly as I can. In the meantime, all you have to do is keep one little secret.”

“It’s not a little secret.”

Dixie shrugged. “Okay. One big secret.”

“Fine, but you better hurry. I doubt that Sawyer will wait that long for me to take a pregnancy test.”

“I think I’ve convinced him those aren’t accurate. Now all we have to do is make sure he can’t get you an appointment at the doctor’s for a pregnancy test. And I have that covered. Doctor Thomas’s receptionist, Doris May, is my friend and will make sure you can’t get in until we’re ready.”

“You are one devious woman, Dixie Leigh,” Maisy said.

Dixie smiled. “Now I wouldn’t say devious. I’d say resourceful. Especially when it concerns someone my husband loves. We have to make Sawyer see